All the rules for Tuesday’s Harris-Trump showdown debate - and who they stand to benefit

Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are set to face off against each other for the first time on the national debate stage on Tuesday and how they perform under the limitations of the rules will be under a microscope.

After several days of back-and-forth, the two candidates finally agreed to comply with the same rules that Trump and President Joe Biden used during the first presidential debate back in June.

That includes muted microphones, no pre-written notes, no live audience, no sitting, and no speaking with campaign staff between commercial breaks.

Though many of the rules are standard for presidential debates, the originally agreed-up regulations could put Harris at a disadvantage since she has a different skill set than President Joe Biden.

Here are the rules for Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia and who stands to benefit.

Microphones will be live only when the candidate whose turn it is to speak is talking. Otherwise,they will remain muted.

This was a rule that Biden and Trump initially agreed upon. But it’s one that Harris tried to change once she became the Democratic presidential nominee. 

Despite Trump saying it “doesn’t matter” to him whether microphones stay on, his team threatened to pull out of the debate if the rules were changed.

Trump is notorious for interrupting people and making snide comments when he is being attacked. During his civil and criminal trials, judges have scolded the former president for speaking out of turn in the courtroom.

Brian Fallon, a top aide for Harris, wrote on X that Trump’s “handlers don’t trust him to spar live”.

Ultimately, Harris agreed to the muted microphone rule but Fallon told ABC News that Harris would be “fundamentally disadvantaged”.

Howev